_cover.jpg) | |
| Author | Henning Steinfeld, Pierre Gerber, Tom Wassenaar, Vincent Castel, Mauricio Rosales, Cees de Haan. |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Agriculture Environment |
| Publisher | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations |
Publication date | 2006 |
| Media type | book website |
| Pages | 390 pp |
| ISBN | 92-5-105571-8 |
| OCLC | 77563364 |
| LC Class | SF140.E25 S744 2006 |
Livestock's Long Shadow: Environmental Issues and Options is aUnited Nations report, released by theFood and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations on 29 November 2006,[1] that "aims to assess the full impact of thelivestock sector on environmental problems, along with potential technical and policy approaches to mitigation".[1] It stated that livestock accounts for 18% of anthropogenicgreenhouse gas emissions, a figure which FAO changed to 14.5% in its 2013 studyTackling climate change through livestock.
The report was a source of controversy at the time of its publication: both because some scholars thought that the report underestimated the impact of livestock on climate change, whileMeat industry stakeholders both publicly critiqued the report and influenced meat producing countries to complain to FAO.[2]
Livestock's Long Shadow is an assessment of research, taking into account direct impacts of livestock production, along with the impacts of feed crop cultivation. The report states that thelivestock sector is one of the top two or three most significant contributors to serious environmental problems. The findings of this report suggest that it should be a major policy focus when dealing with problems ofland degradation,climate change andair pollution,water shortage andwater pollution, andloss of biodiversity.
Senior author Henning Steinfeld stated that livestock are "one of the most significant contributors to today's most serious environmental problems" and that "urgent action is required to remedy the situation."[3]
Following alife-cycle analysis approach, the report evaluates "that livestock are responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions."[4]Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions arise from feed production (e.g. chemicalfertilizer production,deforestation forpasture andfeed crops, cultivation of feed crops, feed transport andsoil erosion),animal production (e.g.enteric fermentation andmethane andnitrous oxide emissions frommanure) and as a result of the transportation of animal products. Following this approach the report estimates that livestock "is responsible for 18 percent" of totalanthropogeniccarbon dioxide emissions,[5] but 37% of methane and 65% of nitrous oxide emissions[citation needed]. The main sources of emissions were found to be:
A 2009 article in theWorldwatch Institute magazine by authors Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang, then employed at the World Bank, claimed that the FAO report was too conservative and that livestock sector accounts for much more of global GHG emissions, at least 51%, taking into account animal respiration and photosynthetic capacity of the land used for feeding and housing livestock.[6][7] A 2011 response to this was published by FAO and an international coalition of scientists, discrediting the magazine article and upholding the 2006 assessment.[8][9] But this response was fully answered back in the journalAnimal Feed Science and Technology (AFST), and they reiterated their estimate while FAO scientists declined to continue the debate despiteAFST's Editor's invitation.[10] In 2013 FAO publicly partnered withInternational Meat Secretariat and theInternational Dairy Federation[11] and many of the same authors of the first report published a subsequent (2013) study for the FAO, revising their estimate of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions due to livestock downward to 14.5%[12][13] without addressing any of the alleged errors pointed out in Goodland and Anhang's report or in the ensuing peer-reviewed debate.
The results ofLivestock's Long Shadow had an error in methodology as the authors only evaluated the tailpipe emissions of cars, while for meat production a comprehensivelife-cycle assessment was used to calculate livestock's green house gas effect[citation needed]. This underestimated transportation therefore inflating meat productions contribution. This issue was raised by Dr. Frank Mitloehner from theUniversity of California, Davis. In an interview with BBC Pierre Gerber, one of the authors ofLivestock's Long Shadow, accepted Mitloehner's criticism. "I must say honestly that he has a point - we factored in everything for meat emissions, and we didn't do the same thing with transport, we just used the figure from the IPCC..." he said.[14] However, this information was the inspiration behind movements such as "Meatless Monday"[15]
Mitloehner is the author of a 2009 study on the topic of livestock and climate change.[16] Five percent of the funds for said study were provided by the livestock industry, according to a press release by Mitloehner's university.[17][18] FAO cites him as a representative of theInternational Feed Industry Federation,[19] whose "vision is to provide a unified voice and leadership to represent and promote the global feed industry as an essential participant in the food chain that provides sustainable, safe, nutritious and affordable food for a growing world population."[20] Between 2002 and 2021 Mitloehner and his research center received $12.5 million in funding from industry groups. 2019 they coordinated efforts to discredit theEAT Lancet report. Later they led the campaign #yes2meat on social media.[21]
The report was the main scientific source[citation needed] for the documentaryMeat The Truth, narrated byMarianne Thieme (2007).[22]
It was frequently cited in the documentaryCowspiracy (2014).[23]
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